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When I had a kerosene heater I would soak a red shop cloth is kerosene and wipe the chain thoroughly with it .. then re-lube with 80/90 gear oil. No kerosene stove now so I just spray the cloth with WD40 and do the same.

OTOH on my KTM in the poof dust (talcum powder like) of the Sonoran desert I use TriFlow regularly. Gear oil just collects too much abrasive ..

I bought a gallon of Kerosene at Walmart for $9.95. I bought a spray bottle and put Kerosene in it and spayed the chain really thoroughly. The chain came extremely clean. Then I used motul chain wax for lubrication / protection.

I put the bike (2013 Versys) up on a pit bull stand and spun the rear tire. I could hear a crunchy sound that sounded like sand in the chain. I have been practicing a little off road with the Versys so it may have picked up some sand that way. Or it may just be road sand.
Florida is a very sandy state. After thoroughly cleaning the chain the sound went away. I wonder if living in a sandy state means that more frequent cleaning is beneficial. I would imagine that sand is very hard on drive trains.

For o ring chains, do I understand correctly that the chain maintenance is more about cleaning and less about lubrication since the o rings keep lubrication in the pin areas?

I read some place that cleaning every 3,000 miles and lubing every 500 miles is recommended. It seems to me that it would be better to clean every time I lube. Is it possible to over clean? I suppose it would depend on how you clean. I have the impression that kerosene is a mild cleaner. Does that mean I can clean as much as I want without worry? It looks really nice with the bright clean chain. Don't know how long that will last.

I washed the bike after I cleaned and lubed the chain. My thinking was that I wanted fresh protection on the chain to protect it from the water while cleaning. But I also wondered if cleaning the bike before cleaning the chain might make sense if I hit the chain with some water to dislodge some grime, then clean with kerosene to get the tough grime and then lube.

Yes to all that, kerosene is what the manual says to use.
Sand pits are murder on motorcycles but they are just so much fun I don't think I ever seen a bike that was cleaned too much, I say go for it.

sidenote: chain guard is an important feature to retain on a motorcycle, without one our rear tire directs a blast of road debris onto the chain. A few bikes even featured a fully enclosed chain with an oil bath very slick

With an O ring chain the primary purpose of added lubrication is between the sprockets and the chain. I have found over 50 years of riding that 80/90 gear oil maximises the life of chain and sprockets. Chain lube is an alternative.

Here in the desert on off road/dual sport bikes the primary problem is grit/sand. The gear oil that works so good on street bikes becomes a liability here in that it attracts the grit/sand forming an abrasive paste. So I've settled on TriFlow after talking to some serious enduro riders. It helps keep the chain clean while providing minimal lubrication. I would never expect to get the high miles out of a chain on my KTM 500 that I do out of me VFR800.

That's where a cir-clip master link comes in handy for servicing, you can easy remove the chain and put it into a gallon plastic jug with some solvent and shake it around until it gets all clean and then dump out the dirty.

Removing and replacing a chain would be a little bit of a step up in my wrenching comfort level. Probably easy once you have done it a few times. I would be a bit concerned that I might have difficulty getting the chain back on or that I might not get the master link re-connected securely. Or I might damage it getting it off. Do you need a special tool?

I found a wire securing the master link on the KLX. I did not put it there. I am not sure why it is there. Hopefully just a safety precaution, but I am a little concerned that it might be because the master link is defective or damaged.

A twist of lock wire clamping the master link clip to the side plate was a common method of adding a bit of security to prevent the clip from departing unexpectedly. Especially upon contact with some sort of trail obstacle.

Dirt bikes typically have non-sealed chains, growing up with dirt bikes and chain saws you just get so accustomed to servicing the rolling parts frequently, wheel bearings, suspension bearings, clean the brakes, air cleaner and chain accumulate a lot of service time. A clean and well lubricated chain robs very little horses but one that is less then perfect is like riding with a brake slightly on, you really notice it in competition environments, I tend to carry those habits over to my street bikes. ... same with chainsaws, those things need almost daily chain maintenance when you are running them hard.

#1 failure with cir-clip installation is putting it on backwards, just make sure the squid clip swims like a squid
and that the side plates are not all installed on the same side of the roller :/ seen that once too.